Court: Law’s restrictions on sex offenders unreasonable

San Diego  An appeals court upheld a ruling this week that a provision of a state law barring registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of parks and schools is too broad and violates the offenders’ constitutional rights.

A three-judge panel of the state 4th District Court of Appeal agreed with a San Diego Superior Court judge’s decision that the residency restriction in Jessica’s Law is unreasonable when applied as a condition of parole because it infringes upon the offenders’ rights to travel in-state, to privacy and to establish a home.

Noting that many parolees were forced into homelessness, Judge Michael Wellington last year ordered state officials to stop applying the residency restriction to the four parolees named in the case.

Wellington said, however, that parole agents retained the authority to impose special restrictions on sex offenders — including limitations on where they can life — as long as they are based on the specific circumstances of each parolee.

“It requires (parole officials) to look at every case on an individual basis,” said Deputy Public Defender Richard Gates, whose office represented the four parolees. “You have to use your common sense and your discretion.”

Lawyers from the Public Defender’s Office recognized that Jessica’s Law — approved by voters in 2006 — was intended to make the public safer, but they argued that applying the residency restriction to all sex offender parolees was forcing many to leave their family homes and live as transients in cars, alleys or along riverbanks.

In some cases, it barred them from living at facilities where they could receive medical treatment or therapy.

Wellington said in his February 2011 ruling that the residency restriction effectively barred sex offender parolees from 97 percent of the existing rental property in San Diego County.

Officials with the Attorney General’s Office and the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Friday lawyers are reviewing the ruling and could not comment at this time.

The appellate court’s decision affects Julie Briley, Jeffrey Glynn, William Taylor and Stephen Todd, who were among dozens of registered sex offenders who challenged the residency restrictions in Jessica’s Law.

It is unclear what immediate effect the ruling will have on other sex offender parolees in San Diego County.

Briley, a local parolee, was convicted in 1988 of committing a lewd act on a child. Because of the 2,000-foot restriction, she was unable to live with family members or at a women’s shelter while on parole. She slept in an alley near the parole office and later in a recreational vehicle.

Todd, who had been in and out of prison since 1981, was required to register as a sex offender because of a molestation case on his juvenile record. After he was paroled in 2008, he slept near the San Diego River because he was unable to find affordable housing that complied with state law.

Glynn was convicted in 1989 for misdemeanor sexual battery on a woman he was dating. He has been married for 12 years and has three children but lived in a van for some time after he was paroled.

Taylor was convicted in Arizona in 1991 of kidnapping a woman for sexual assault. He suffers from a long list of medical and psychiatric conditions and cannot pay for housing.